Ferrari
Last Sunday afternoon (5/28), while driving home on 5&20 from mighty Weggers, I was passed by a blood-red Ferrari F430 Spyder going the other way.
For those not hip to the Ferrari mystique, Enzo Ferrari was the manager of the world-champion Alfa-Romeo team in the late ‘30s, and switched to building, and racing, his own cars in 1947.
Enzo, an ornery Italian padrone, built some of the greatest sports-cars of all time. His cars often won LeMans, and were gorgeous. Premier were the first TestaRossas in the mid-’50s. (I still remember the Fuller Brush catalog we got in Erlton; it was done by Denise McCluggage and was heavily illustrated with blood-red TestaRossas.)
My first thought on seeing the F430 was “I wonder if that’s Danny?” Danny Wegman, son of Robert Wegman of the giant Weggers grocery empire, is a car-geek.
Supposedly he street-raced a 454 Chevelle.
Many Wegman stores stage a weekly Cruze-Night. That’s Danny.
Years ago Danny had a new TestaRossa, the mid-engine sports-car with a mega-power 12. It was blood-red and an ‘83 or so.
Danny is one of the few able to afford a Ferrari, but I don’t know, since the F430 ain’t a real Ferrari: it’s a V8. Real Ferraris have V12s, or flat-12s (I think Danny’s TestaRossa was a flat-12.)
But it has all the Formula One gizmos: shift-switch on the steering-wheel, programmable handling, electronic de-clutching, and a phenomenal motor.
Ferrari has always raced Formula One — often dominating it — even though it’s become a political circus.
Enzo died in 1990 at age 90, but his fabulous legacy lives on.
If it was Danny, he has excellent taste in cars; even if it was only a V8.
One time Jack and I encountered a middle-‘80s TestaRossa in Boston. We strode inside in awe, and I said to the salesman (salesman I guess), “if you ever wanna will this thing to a bunch of eager car-nuts, we’re ready.” That motor was something to be taken apart.
For those not hip to the Ferrari mystique, Enzo Ferrari was the manager of the world-champion Alfa-Romeo team in the late ‘30s, and switched to building, and racing, his own cars in 1947.
Enzo, an ornery Italian padrone, built some of the greatest sports-cars of all time. His cars often won LeMans, and were gorgeous. Premier were the first TestaRossas in the mid-’50s. (I still remember the Fuller Brush catalog we got in Erlton; it was done by Denise McCluggage and was heavily illustrated with blood-red TestaRossas.)
My first thought on seeing the F430 was “I wonder if that’s Danny?” Danny Wegman, son of Robert Wegman of the giant Weggers grocery empire, is a car-geek.
Supposedly he street-raced a 454 Chevelle.
Many Wegman stores stage a weekly Cruze-Night. That’s Danny.
Years ago Danny had a new TestaRossa, the mid-engine sports-car with a mega-power 12. It was blood-red and an ‘83 or so.
Danny is one of the few able to afford a Ferrari, but I don’t know, since the F430 ain’t a real Ferrari: it’s a V8. Real Ferraris have V12s, or flat-12s (I think Danny’s TestaRossa was a flat-12.)
But it has all the Formula One gizmos: shift-switch on the steering-wheel, programmable handling, electronic de-clutching, and a phenomenal motor.
Ferrari has always raced Formula One — often dominating it — even though it’s become a political circus.
Enzo died in 1990 at age 90, but his fabulous legacy lives on.
If it was Danny, he has excellent taste in cars; even if it was only a V8.
One time Jack and I encountered a middle-‘80s TestaRossa in Boston. We strode inside in awe, and I said to the salesman (salesman I guess), “if you ever wanna will this thing to a bunch of eager car-nuts, we’re ready.” That motor was something to be taken apart.
posted by BobbaLew at 5:57 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home